Pages

Saturday, 4 February 2012

Winter project completed - first quilt

This winter I have been working as a conservator on a project which has just finished

Due to working away for a good few months with no internet access and limited phone signal I decided that I would make my first quilt to give me something to do in the evenings.

I have always loved patchwork and admiring quilts, but never got round to making one, so here was the perfect excuse. I went to a lovely craft shop near my parent’s house and took ages to choose my fabric. In the end I selected a kit which the shop had made up. It was for a basic square and rectangle quilt and could be the size of a cot quilt or a lap quilt when completed. I chose a beautiful charm pack of 50 5 x 5 inch squares, and then 2 extra fat quarters and couldn’t wait to get started on it.

I really enjoyed doing the patchwork, but when it came to sewing up the blocks I realised how important it is to make sure all of your seam allowances are the same as some of mine are a bit ‘off’ so some squares are a bit small.

I then added some embellishments, by stitching on some crochet ribbon and some old ribbon my grandma gave me.

Crochet ribbon along the bottom, blue ribbon on blue panel.

I also stitched the cute cherry pattern of one piece in satin stitch and stem stitch, which gives it a nice effect. I quilted some squares as well.

Stitched detail on cherry panel.

I added the boarder which is burgundy and blends in well with the colour theme and this was from a slightly heavier cotton and this will make it a bit more robust.

For the wadding I used Hobbs Heirloom 100% cotton and I like the fact that this seems a bit heavier, I enjoyed working with this wadding. I then quilted the whole quilt and then added the navy blue boarder. I struggled a bit with the mitred corners to make them look tidy.

Boarder and binding

I have finished it tonight and I am very pleased with it, it is also extremely warm, much warmer than I thought it would be. I am regretting having made such a small quilt, but am pleased with my first attempt.

I sewed the whole quilt by hand, as I was working away. I enjoyed doing the patchwork by hand, but I think that quilting by machine makes the effect much more defined and also neater. In future I will do quilting on the machine.

I have not prewashed the fabric, having only remembered it halfway through making it, so I carried on and did not prewash the boarder or binding either.

I really like the colour theme as I wanted my first quilt to have an old fashioned look to it. It measures 129 x 100 cm or 51 by 39 inches.